Las Cruces and Old Mesilla, New Mexico

Hi friends and family.

A few days have gone by but we are finally in an area where I can let you know where we have been and a little of what we have seen. Of course we cannot share everything, but so far it is turning out to be a fun adventure.

We both enjoyed and love the Land Of Enchantment.  Coming down the I-10 you come upon Las Cruces and the view is beautiful. It is settled in a valley and the colors of the sky, land and mountains are wonderful.
There is so much great history here, and I especially wanted to take it all in.

Yvon took some beautiful pictures of the community and of the land outside of town.  I will try and put more of those on at a later date.

We found ourselves taken to another time and place when we discovered Old Mesilla, which was only a few blocks from where we were staying.

This area has all kinds of historical landmarks and what was a real wild west area.

 The Butterfield Overland Mail and Stage Line was established here in 1858.

In the 1850's Judge Roy Bean and his brother operated a freight and passenger service line.  Of course the real story is Billy the Kid, alias William Bonney who was tried for murder. The now shop on the square was where his was held for trail and then escaped.

We fell in love with the art, that is everywhere,and had a wonderful lunch at a beautiful cafe called Josephina's Gate.

  The next day, we listened to a couple that sang an old song, which in English means Beautiful Sky.  It was a real treat. My father would play this song on his guitar and sing it to me when a was a child, so it was fantastic to finally know what the title meant.  Part of the song is on the video at the end of this blog.

By chance the Mariachi State Festival was just beginning and we where able to have a front row seat on the plaza and listen to the music and watch the beautiful dancers.  Nothing had been planned and it was a perfect  way to spend our last day.

We were up and on the road very early the following morning.  I have to say we want to return and drive north.  New Mexico is the Land of Enchantment and the people we visited with were very welcoming and friendly.

Thank you again for reading.

Love to all

Anne and Yvon,

Text by Anne
Images by Yvon

Even the Plates are Colorful...

The Kid

Las Cruces

Josephina's Gate Cafe

Church at the end of the Plaza

Beautiful 

Colorful Art Everywhere

Home Entrance

Lets Rock

Beauty in Everything

Until Nest Time...

Hi friends, family and Rvers,

From: brqyvn@gmail.com

Just a few days ago, we planned to visit the Cleveland National Park, near San Diego. Well...while the Government is shut down, the park was closed...bummer. I could spend a long time talking about our Government, but it would be a waste of my time and yours.

We kept driving North on Sunrise Hwy to  "Julian", a quaint small town about 45 minutes North East of San Diego. Julian is famous for their apples orchards. Little did we know that the "Julian Apple Harvest" was in full swing. There were too many people to enjoy and all restaurants were filled to capacity. We bought an apple pie and took it home (Fifth Wheel). We left the pie on the kitchen counter in the RV, only to wake up the next morning to see thousands of ants going back and forth from the pie to their nest. Oh well!

Anne still wanted to walk around and go to all of the shops. Apparently, she got some great bargains.

It started here and ended up $50.00 later.

At the end of town, this beautiful horse was being  spoiled from people feeding it with...what else, apples.

Anne loves horses and you can see that in her demeanor.

Older residents watching the parade of City folks.  

That is the look of a happy shopper.

I have to say that Julian is indeed a cute Town, but I would have preferred visiting it on a regular day.

Just like the old days. I imagined it would have looked like this with yesteryear's cameras.

Thank you for visiting our blog. Maybe we'll see you somewhere along the long way home.

Yvon and Anne

Our first stay, Desert Willow RV Resort in Hesperia, California.

Hello RVers, Photographers, Friends and Family.

You can email me (us) directly at brqyvn@gmail.com

We just retired on August first and are eager to hit the road, but before we do, we need to stay around here until our Social Security and benefits kicks in. It will take about one Month or so. There are a few business matters to take care of but then we are San Diego bound, as our first true escape.

It's going to take me a little while before I get used to this newly found freedom, but I think I'll manage just fine. I feel like I'm skipping school!

Desert Willow is a nice RV Park for this area, but it's only five miles south from our previous home, so we already know this area too well. There are several new RV's pulling in every day and that's  a good way to meet new people. 

We are planning to travel across the U.S. and Canada with our RV, but we will stay two to four weeks at each destination. We believe that the way to really appreciate each location is to stay for a while. Beside, we are not in a hurry.

Apparently, there are more "Baby Boomers" taking the  full time RV living than any generation before us. I believe that, but looking around this RV Resort, we noticed that several of the RV's were staying here full time. The RV's are on concrete blocks, with a shed on the lot, fence, lights, flowers, etc. We are in mid-summer, so they aren't "snowbirds". I afraid that many have lost their houses or jobs or both, and that is the way they can survive. This area's unemployment is one of the highest in California. We had our hard times too, but I hope we will continue to afford his new chapter of our lives.

If you like Photography, my other Blog Site might interest you. The Blogspot.

I hope a lot of RVers will stumble on this site, participate and exchange stories,adventures, tips, great locations, recipes, and anything and everything about RVing.

Thanks for stopping by,

Yvon and Anne Bourque

Desert Willow is a  nice RV Resort, quiet, but near Los Angeles.

This is the row where we got our camp site.

We lucked out with two trees on bots sides of our 5th Wheel. 

  

Protected from the High Desert sun. It gets above 100 degrees F almost daily.

This is Ruby. She does all the hard work.

We get in the pool daily, around 10:00 A.M.

Less than 15 days before retirement and RVing across the Country.

Hi Friends,

brqyvn@gmail.com

We didn't change much!

We're almost there. July 31st is the official day I will be retiring. We have prepared a long time for that moment. I will finally do the two things I love best...photography and travel. Of course, this will enable us to visit friends and family and especially my daughters, their spouse and grandchildren.

This is a big Country and there is a lot of places to discover. Add  Canada to that, and we should be busy for a long time.We will start our venture right here in California, before heading to Texas this coming October. We want to stay in San Diego for a while and then go up along the coast. We will certainly stop in San Luis Obispo  and stay for a few weeks. Then it's up to Yosemite for a last visit. 

From there, we believe we will drive to Las Vegas, where we hope to double our money [:)]. Santa Fee will be our last stay before spending most of the winter Months in South East Texas.

For you, Friends and Family, you can follow us on our venture. For you, Photographers and especially Pentax users, I will surely post tons of pictures, tips, lessons for entry level photographers, and I will continue to write e-books about Pentax equipment and most likely about other brands, now that I will be able to devote all the time I want to doing what I like best.

For you, RVers, I will post comments, pictures, stories, equipment reviews and hope to get followers and perhaps meet some of you across North America.

I still have some business to attend to until the end of the Month, but I should post something on this site every day thereafter.

This blog site is going to be shared with my Photography blog as well, pentaxdslrs.blogspot.com

Honk if you see us on the road

See you soon,

Yvon Bourque